Weekly Report - 30 September 2003

General Roberto Bendini, Argentina's army chief of staff, has been accused of anti-Semitism for having told war college students that one current `conflict hypothesis' focused on foreign- power designs on Patagonia and the Littoral (the eastcentral provinces), manifest in the actions of `small groups [...] under the guise of tourism.' Some of those small groups, he said, were Israeli. Bendini issued a non-denial denial; a twomember `commission' of inquiry concluded that he hadn't actually made the offending statements, and the government said it was satisfied. Now the senate wants to hear directly from Bendini.